Welt implement for full-fashioned knitting machines



2 Sheets-Sheet 1 F/GZ.

A. P. SAUNDERS WELT IMPLEMENT FOR FULL-FASHIONED KNITTING MACHINES July 10, 1956 Filed Nov. 30. 1951 July 10, 1956 A. P. SAUNDERS 2,753,704

WELT IMPLEMENT FOR FULL-FASHIONED KNITTING MACHINES Filed Nov. 30, 1951 2 Sheets$heet 2 50 2:70 J'gm pqf y Attorney Patented July 1956 United States Patent Office WELT IMPLEMENT FOR FULL-FASHIONED KNITTING MACHINES Alfred Percy Saunders, Leicester, England, assignor to Wildt and Company Limited, Leicester, England, a British company Application November 30, 1951, Serial No. 259,035

Claims priority, application Great Britain December 18, 1950 6 Claims. (Cl. 66-96) This invention relates to welt implements such as are provided in a full-fashioned or straight bar knitting machine for picking up and temporarily retaining the initial course of loops at the commencement of knitting a fully fashioned web and for transferring these loops back to the needles after turning of the welt fabric.

In this connection the invention is principally intended for use in full-fashioned hosiery machines furnished with spring beard needles and adapted to produce fully fashioned stocking blanks, having welts, i. e. top portions consisting of double fabric.

Implements provided for the purposes specified are often called welt hooks, although throughout this specification and the claims appended thereto the term welt implements is used in preference to avoid confusion when referring to the hooked portions only of the implements.

The object of this invention is to provide, in or for a full-fashioned knitting machine, a welt implement of generally improved form as will be hereinafter described.

Broadly considered, the improved welt implement comprises a part having a hook, and an associated loopspreading part, the said two parts being adapted to provide between them a space to receive the head of a knitting needle.

Preferably, the leading, i. e. operative, end portion of the loop-spreading parts inclines laterally towards the hooked part with its tip in contact with the latter.

As will be appreciated, the leading end portion of the loop-spreading part co-operates with the opposing portion of the stem of the hooked part to spread or open out a picked-up loop which is caused to embrace these spaced portions as the result of forward movement of the welt implement.

In a convenient embodiment of the invention, the side of the hooked part opposing the adjacent loop-spreading part may have therein a depression to receive the tip of the loop-spreading part. The tip is accordingly buried in the hooked part to prevent separation of the two parts and consequently obviate any tendency for a picked-up loop, when the implement is advanced, to merely enter the space between these parts--instead of being laterally spread or distended to facilitate its ultimate transference back to the relevant needle.

It is important that in the improved welt implement the hook shall be disposed in alignment, longitudinally, with the space between the hooked and the loop-spreading parts. That is to say, the longitudinal axis of the hook must be coincident, or substantially so, with the median line of the space. This may conveniently be achieved by laterally offsetting the leading portion of the stem of the hooked part with respect to the remainder of the same.

The hooked and loop-spreading parts are so formed as to enable them to be readily fitted side by side, and accurately located in, a welt bar designed for use in a full fashioned knitting machine. A welt bar equipped with a series of the two-part welt implements and adapted to be actuated either manually or automatically accordingly constitutes a feature of this invention.

In the accompanying drawings,

Figure l is a cross-sectional view of a welt bar showing the hooked member and the associated loop-spreading member of one of the improved welt implements located and secured in position therein,

Figure 2 is a front view of a portion of the said welt bar, with its locking plate removed to disclose more clearly a few of the improved two-part implements fitted therein,

Figure 3 is a detail side view of a fragmentary portion of a hooked member to show the depression formed therein to receive the tip of the loop-spreading member,

Figure 4 is a detail side view of a Welt implement depicted with one of an initial course of loops embracing the spaced members of the implement and distended ready for transfer to a spring beard needle, and

Figure 5 is a diagrammatic sectional plan view of a few of the welt implements and spring beard needles, illus trating the manner in which loops are spread laterally by the said implements preparatory to transfer to alternate ones of the needles.

Like parts are designated by similar reference characters through the drawings.

Referring to the drawings it will be seen that the specific form of the improved welt implement illustrated, by way of example, comprises a member 1 having a hook 2 at one end, and a separate loop-spreading member 3, the said two members being rigid or substantially so throughout and adapted to provide between them, when suitably held side by side, a space 4 to receive the head 5 of a spring beard knitting needle 6 (see Figures 1 and 4).

The stem of the hooked member 1 is of flat crosssectional form, with rounded front and rear edges. The upper end portion of this stem (viewing the implement as in Figures 1 and 2) is of gradually tapering form and inclines forwards somewhat. The rigid hook 2 is formed by swaging the end of the stem to circular crosssection and turning it over, the point of the hook being made to lie close to the underlying front edge of the stem. It will be noted from a consideration of Figures 1 and 2, that the lower end of the stem of the hooked member 1 is of uniform width and made slightly thicker than the tapered upper end portion. In one side of the stem is formed a depression or groove 7, spaced some distance from the hook 2, and at this location the stem is cramped suchwise as to offset the hook and the adjoining upper portion of the stem with respect to the major portion of the latter. The shape of the depression or groove 7 is depicted more clearly in Figure 3. At the tail end of it's stem, remote from the hook 2, the member 1 is provided with a locating butt 8 formed for engagement in a longitudinal groove 9 cut in a welt bar such as it (see Figures 1 and 2).

The separate loop-spreading member 3 is substantially shorter in length than the hooked member it and is, for the most part, of the same thickness and width as the major lower portion of the latter. The operative end portion or" the member 3 is, however, somewhat thinner, tapers to a narrow and rounded tip 11 and is so cramped as to incline the said tip to one side of the shank of the member. The tail end of this shank, remote from the tip 11, is provided with a locating butt 12 formed, like the butt 8 on the hookedmember 1, for engagement-in the aforetact with the bottom of the depression or groove 7, and the book 2 will be disposed in longitudinal alignment with the space 4 between the two members. In other words, in the assembled and complete implement, the tip 11' is buried in the stem of the adjacent hooked member, and the longitudinal axis of the hook 2 is coincident with the median line a of the space 4 (see Figure 2).

To complete the welt bar 16, hooked members 1 and relatively short loop-spreading members 3 of a series are inserted side by side and in alternating relation into the slots 13, with all of the butts 3 and 12 engaged in the common longitudinal groove 9 so as to locate the members in the direction of their length. The adjacently disposed members 1 and 3 of all of the welt implements of the completed assemblage are secured in the bar 1% by means of a locking plate 14 which has an appropriately faced clamping portion 14a. The plate 14 is secured to the welt bar by means of screws such as 15 which are screwed into tapped holes 16 formed in the said bar beneath the slots 13 and the longitudinal groove 9.

7 Thus, in the completed assemblage, there are spaces 1.7 between the successive pairs of hooked and loop-spreading members constituting the welt implements. When the welt bar 1%, fully equipped with implements, is mounted in a full fashioned knitting machine, the spaces t and 17 alternate with one another at a pitch exactly the same as that of the needles 6 in the needle bar (not shown). Accordingiy, each of the spaces 4 and 17 is in line with a needle.

With the machine in operation, a fashioned knitted web or blank is commenced by first forming a complete course of loops on all of the needles and pressing the needle beards in the normal way. The welt bar It) is inserted into the machine in, say, horizontal plane, and upon retraction of the sinl-cers, alternate ones of the said initial loops are landed onto the Welt implements and picked up by the hooks 2. By means of the customary picot bar, the loops on alternate needles are dropped, as a consequence of which stitches are now on the intervening needles and the welt hooks. nitting is proceeded with on all of the needles until the required amount of welt fabric has been produced, whereupon the welt bar is moved, e. g. turned over, in such a manner as to cause the loops in the hooks 2 to slide along the welt implements and so embrace the spaced portions of the hooked and loop-spreading members ll and 3. As the result of this movement the said loops, a few of which are indicated at L in Figure 5, are laterally spread or distended preparatory to penetration by the needles to which they are to be transferred. After a welt rod has been inserted in the usual way, the welt bar it is moved into another, e. practically vertical, plane in front of the needles, and the needle bar is opened so that the welt implements are then presented to the needles 6 in the manner illustrated in Figure 4. Thus, alternate needles enter the spaces 17 between the implements, whilst the heads 5 of the intervening needles are received in the spaces 4 between the pairs of hooked and loop-spreading members 1 and 3. The books 2 at this stage lie against the backs of the needle stems and are shielded thereby. Transfer of the spread loops L back to the relevant needles is eliected by pressing down the fabric F in the direction of the arrow in Figure 4: as a result, the loops L are caused to slide along the welt implements, over and below the needle beards 6a and hence over the shielded hooks 2 onto the stems of the needles, thereby completely freeing the welt bar for removal.

I claim:

1. For a full-fashioned knitting machine, a welt implement comprising, in combination, a stem-like member having a hook at its operative end, the portion of said member adjoining the hook being laterally oifset with respect to the remainder thereof, and a loop-spreading member, the said two members being arranged to provide between them a space to receive the head of a knitting needle, and the extent of the lateral offsetting of the leading portion of the stem-like member being such as to dispose the hook in longitudinal alignment with the median line of said space.

2. For a full-fashioned knitting machine, a welt implement comprising, in combination, a member having a hook at one end, and a separate loop-spreading member the leading portion of which is inclined towards the member having a hook at one end with its tip in contact with the member having the hook at one end, the remaining portion or" the loop-spreading member being adapted to held apart from the hooked member suchwise as to 4 provide between said two members, a space to receive the head of a knitting needle the longitudinal axis of the hook being substantially coincident with the median line of the space.

3. For a full-fashioned knitting machine, a welt implement comprising, in combination, a member which is reduced at one end and provided at such end with a hook, means defining in one side thereof a depression located a distance from said hook, and a separate comparatively short loop-spreading member having a laterally inclined operative end disposed with its tip within the depression and a shank spaced apart from and parallel to the hooked member suchwise as to provide, between the two members, a space to receive the head of a knitting needle.

4. A welt implement according to claim 3, wherein the portion of the member with the hook adjoining the hook is laterally oflset with respect to the remainder thereof to the extent of disposing the hook in longitudinal alignment with the space between the two members.

5. A felt implement according to claim 3, wherein the hooked and loop-spreading members are provided with locating butts, for the purpose specified.

6. For a full-fashioned knitting machine, a welt bar cut with a series of spaced parallel slots and a longitudinal groove extending at right angles to'said slots, and, titted in said bar, a series of welt implements each comprising a part placed in one of the slots and having a hook at its operative end and a locating butt at its tail end engaged in the longitudinal groove, and a separate loop-spreading part which is placed in the next slot in the bar and also has a butt at its tail end engaged in the longitudinal groove, the leading end portion of said loopspreading part being inclined laterally towards the part with the hook with its tip in contact therewith and the said two parts having between them a space to receive the head of a knitting needle.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,418,345 Witherell June 6, 1922 1,790,350 Lara; Jan. 27, 1931 2,111,476 McAdams Mar. 15, 1938 2,190,664 Howie Feb. 20, 1940 2,326,694 Sirmay Aug. 10, 1943 2,333,350 Smetana Aug. 21, 1945 2,442,442 Shortland June 1, 1948 2,626,5l5 St. Pierre Jan. 27, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 419,601 Great Britain Nov. 12, 1934 724,145 Germany Aug. 19, 1942 

